FLÖRT UYGULAMALARINDAKİ İMAJLAR DÜNYASI: “KLİŞELERİN DİKTATÖRLÜĞÜ”NE KARŞI DOĞALLIK

“Kadınlar erkeklerde sosyoekonomik statüye, erkeklerse fiziksel güzelliğe bakar” miti, sürekli olarak tekrar tekrar yeniden üretilmektedir. İmajların üretimine odaklanan çevrimiçi flört literatürü, bu cinsiyetçi ve heteronormatif ikiliğin benlik sunumlarında nasıl baskın olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Heteroseksüel bireylerin flört uygulamalarını nasıl kullandıklarına bakan bu çalışma; güzellik-statü ikiliğinin bir ürünü olan bu profillerin nasıl algılandığına, imajların tüketimine odaklanarak literatürdeki boşluğu doldurmayı amaçlamaktadır. Video mülakat ve yeniden canlandırma tekniklerini kullanarak literatüre metodolojik bir katkı da sunmaktadır. Kullanıcıların kaydırma, eş seçme, pratiklerini inceleyen bu araştırma; güzellik-statü ikiliğinin nasıl klişeler diktatörlüğü yarattığını, buna karşın bireylerin nasıl doğallığı çekici bularak bu klişe imajlar bombardımanına duygulanımsal bir tepki verdiklerini göstermektedir. Bedenin salt kurumlar, yasalar ve normlar tarafından şekillendirilip denetlenmediğinin, aynı zamanda içinde bulunduğu durumlara, ortamlara nasıl cevap verdiğinin, direndiğinin altını çizmektedir. Makale, gelecek çalışmaları imajların bedenlere neler yapabildiklerine ve bedenlerin bu imajlara nasıl tepki verdiklerine odaklanarak güzellik-statü mitini ifşa etmek yerine onu sekteye uğratmaya, bozmaya davet etmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

çevrimiçi flört, Tinder, benlik sunumu, duygulanım, eş seçimi

THE WORLD OF IMAGES IN DATING APPS: “DICTATORSHIP OF CLICHÉS” VS. NATURALITY

The myth “women prioritize socioeconomic status whereas men value physical beauty” is continuously reproduced. The heterosexual online dating literature that addresses image production highlights the dominance of this gendered and heteronormative binary in self-presentations. Examining how heterosexual individuals use dating apps, this study focuses on image consumption and how profiles as the products of this beauty-status binary are perceived. Using video interviews and reenactment techniques to analyze users’ practices of swiping, i.e., mate selection, this study also offers a novel research method to the literature. The findings demonstrate how the so-called binary creates a dictatorship of clichés and how individuals affectively, though partially, respond to this visual bombardment by feeling an attraction toward naturality. It underlines that bodies are not simply shaped and controlled by cultural institutions, norms, and laws but also respond to the situations and environments in which they find themselves. This paper invites future studies to focus on what images can do to bodies and how bodies respond to them and break the beauty-status myth rather than expose it.

Keywords:

online dating, dating apps, self-presentation, affect, mate selection,

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